Rain Rain Go Away

Fall has arrived in the Pacific Northwest. It began raining yesterday evening and rained all day today. The forecast doesn't look much better until Thursday when, theoretically, the great glowing orb of life may show itself. I am packing up my rain gear for tomorrow and plan on commuting home from work, rain or shine. I didn't ride on Friday and was pretty disappointed in myself. I had no good reason, but I invented enough. I'll make it up to myself this week by stepping my training back up to where it was the week prior. Get a couple of good rides in and make sure to do my cyclo-core training as well. My folks are coming over on Thursday to see one of Olivia's soccer games and to give Audra and I a chance to spend the night in the City sans kids. I made a reservation downtown at the Renaissance and picked up some tickets to a show at the Triple Door. Its our 14th wedding anniversary tomorrow and we'll celebrate it in style next Saturday. Good times.

GOOOOOOOALLLLLL!

Your going to have to trust me that the grinning, bouncy blond pony tail that scores in the video below is Olivia. Olivia scored twice this evening! The kids were a bit more focused tonight, they lost interest (and the game) toward the end but for a little while they were into it - literally and figuratively. I was much happier with the focus and the effort tonight. It was nice that the rain stayed away as well.

Olivia took the ball along the outside, kicked it to free space and used her wheels to chase it down and drive it home. Later in the game (and me without the camera ready) she took the ball in traffic, dribbled it around the corner and stayed strong through a couple of defenders and scored again. It was pretty to watch.

Austin takes Olivia & Kati for a spin

This past August we had the good fortune to go over to Billings to celebrate my Grandmother's 85th birthday. The girls loved it, especially the part where they got to spend time with their cousin Austin. Its now a month later but they both talk about it like it was yesterday. Olivia even plans on learning how to ski this year so we can go to Reno and ski with Austin. Good stuff.

Kati's first day of School Interview

Kati has a lot to say -

The Diet

I'm getting a bit discouraged. Today I did my Cyclo-Core workout and it was actually more difficult to complete than last week. Here I am thinking I'm getting stronger and that doesn't appear to be the case. Also, my weight has been holding steady at 200lbs - my calories in still appear to be be less than my calories out but that doesn't appear to be affecting the bottom line. I'm going to review my calculator and lower the amount of basal calories I burn. I think I'm going to lay off the heavy meals on days that I ride as well. We'll see how that works over the next week.

Do you commute?

MY COMMUTE

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Mountain bikers are a friendly bunch. When you see someone on a trail
you generally say hello, and perhaps even stop to chat a while, "What
trials have you been on?", "Have you been here before?", "Have a great
ride!" On the road I find it to be a much different story. I commute
from downtown to Redmond once or twice a week and have been conducting
a bit of an experiment. I wave to everyone I pass - nothing fancy, no
cheer squad or fan fare, just the basic, hey how ya doing, head not
and fingers lift off the handlebar. And 9 times out of 10 I get
nothing back. Nothing, nada, zippo - now I don't think I'm doing a
"crazy guy" wave (and I'm not using any specific fingers - although I
may want to read the Larry Craig story more carefully) just a casual
greeting among cyclists. Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day to be commuting
by bicycle, yet damn near all the folks I met didn't appear to be
enjoying it even slightly. So, when YOU'RE on the road do you wave
back?

Soccer

The kids got thumped last night, and it didn't bother them one bit. I asked Olivia about it after the game, her face wrinkled up and she said "Daddy, soccer is just for fun" So I asked her if she had fun? Her face resumed its characteristic grin and said "oh YEAH, I love to play" Makes me wonder - when, where and how do we get our competitive edge? Why do some folks, like me, hate to lose, while other folks (my mom, my wife, my daughter) just seem to be happy playing? I can't remember ever having my Dad harp on me about winning, or doing my best - in my memory it was the opposite as I would fall into a serious funk if our team had lost a game. It was best just to leave me alone for a while so I could cool down and get some perspective. My folks attempted to get me to understand that doing your best was the ultimate prize, and if you won the game.. all the better. Clean solid effort. We learn late that there is always going to be someone faster, stronger, quicker, smarter than ourselves so a kid I thought I should win every game. We didn't and I burned many a weekend sulking. If last night is any indication, I don't think Olivia is going to have that problem. I'm proud of that.

The diet

I want to be faster on my bike. I want to be stronger. I want to be thinner. Not really thin, because that wouldn't be me. I've been called a lot of things in my life but thin has never been one of them. Thinner. Just drop a few pounds the old fashioned way - eat fewer calories than I burn. I'm doing this by taking a more concerted effort to exercise, commuting on my Surly and hitting the trails on one of my mountain bikes as well as doing my cyclo-core workouts. Cyclo-Core is a combination of body weight training and yoga that has been tailored to improve posture, speed and strength for cycling. The three sessions absolutely kill me - and I love it. I'm also counting calories at Fit Day - I got the information on this website from the Fat Cyclist. I started 2 weeks ago at 206 and weighed in Monday morning at 199. My goal is still 15 lbs away - but I don't plan on getting there until the first of the year.

Hike to Lake Dorothy

Back when the weather was still good and hot, I took Olivia and Kati out on a little local hike. We headed up highway 2 to Money Creek Campground and then proceeded to drive a few more miles to the trailhead for Lake Dorothy. The valley we hiked up is Camp Robber Valley, and I think the falls we ended up lunching at, and turning around, were on the aforementioned Money Creek. In any event, the girls decided to explore a bit and Olivia wanted to take the camera. The results are provided below.

Goin to the river!

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